counseling/psychology blog
are you interested in psychology, counseling, social work, psychiatry, the general realm of mental health? if so, stick with me while i tell a bit of my story and then share a new idea in the mixing.
as you may or may not know, i am currently working towards my masters degree in counseling with an emphasis on play therapy and transpersonal/integral counseling. as both a therapist and an individual, i strive to co-create spaces that invite exploration of the life that is within us and around us. encouraging one another to be open and present, actively engaging in our lives, appears to be powerful medicine. i have found therapy to be a phenomenal resource for offering people an opportunity, environment and relationship through which to explore one's inner territory and make contact with emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
i moved to texas a year and a half ago because of the strong play therapy program that the university of north texas offers. 2 months after i arrived i volunteered at a conference at the university on near death experiences. at the conference i was in disbelief, here i was in an academic setting with a couple hundred (i'm bad with numbers, it looked like lots of people!) people (IN TEXAS) talking openly about near-death and other mystical experiences. i was moved at a core level, in amazement that there were academic and intellectual circles that had similar conversations to the ones i had with my friends in our living rooms. after the conference i was at p.m.h. atwater's website and i saw reference to UNT in a list of alternative universities offering excellent degree/certificate programs. it became clear to me why i had so emphatically decided that texas was where i HAD to go to graduate school.
Dr. Jan Holden, a counseling professor, president of IANDS, and a practicing counselor whose guiding theory is integral psychology, has been an incredibly valuable asset to my education and a wonderful professor to learn from and with. through her, the world of transpersonal and integral psychology and counseling opened up to me. it's been extremely confirming for me to learn this intellectual language that coincides with much of my experience of and intuition regarding some of the ways of humans and the universe!
my participation in the integral naked forum has connected me with many remarkable people. ryan is one of those people and at his blog, integral awakening, the idea came up to create a counseling/psychology blog. i am extremely passionate about the field of therapy and would love to be a part of a community that is working to propagate a holistic, integral perspective of what a therapist and therapy is. there are so many stereotypes about counselors and psychologists that simply are not true and there is a wide population of people who have been let down and disregarded in traditional therapeutic processes. we hope to use this blog to explore and focus on anything and everything that is related to counseling and psychology.
does this sound interesting to you? do you want to participate?
i agree with ryan , the master mind behind this idea, that "it would be a collective/joint effort that I think would be very exciting because I have yet to come across such an active resource - plus I know it would benefit my development as an individual and a counselor."
post a comment if you're moved to participate and i'll keep you all informed as this project comes to life.
comments:
delicious sharing
Ashley, Ryan what I fantastic idea!
I am definitely in and will do all I can to help you guys make the (integral?) counseling/ psychology blog a great resource and experience
It will be exciting to have an outlet to share with like-minded budding counselors.
My outlook, research, and modality is rooted in the prophetic words of Jung- "The counselors role is to objectively validate the subjective reality of the client"
From Quantum physics to post-modern thought, it is becoming more and more evident that reality is a fluid construct- we need an integrally informed, client centered dialog rooted in the moment where principles of mindfulness and awareness reveal layers of the self.
This enables a progressive development of the inner person towards greater freedom, self expression, and in particular toward a natural harmonious way of being in the cosmos.
Jeff | Email | Homepage | 06.15.04 - 4:01 pm | #
Evenin' Ashley,
We met briefly at the Practice of Peace conference last November through
Christy Lee-Engel of Bastyr University. I'm the President of LIOS
(Leadership Institute of Seattle) and Dean of the LIOS/Bastyr University
School of Applied Behavioral Science. We offer a degree track in Systems
Counseling so when Christy forwarded your message about the blog I
stopped by for a "visit". I'm familiar with list serves, but new to
blogs, so we'll see how this goes.
Your vision ("integral counseling") is as intriguing as it is ambitious.
It would be helpful to me to have a sense about what integral means to
you and how you see it being embodied in the counseling context. Is it
a systems approach with a Ken Wilber slant? Is it a mind/body/spirit
approach, something that incorporates current therapy modalities with
things like body work, 5 Element Chinese Model, mindfulness practices,
etc…? Or something altogether different?
Having been a family therapist for 20+ years before being called to my
current work I have an interest in what I think you are inviting. I also
have an intuition that it is a path that in some ways may be “dangerous”
for the profession, in that it has the potential of getting therapy out
of it’s “special” field of practice, it’s niche, it’s “ministry” if you
will, and into a more collaborative, integrative field, where it is but
one dimension of a much larger expression/exploration of what it means
to be alive and sustainable on this planet."
Your “invitation” conjures up questions like “What is the relationship
between therapist and physician; therapist and lawyer; therapist and
school system; therapist and employer (their own and their client’s)?
So I applaud your curiosity and have added some of my own. Hope this
helps. I’m not sure when I’ll return to this site, given the work on my
plate, but I’m pretty good about responding to emails (the web has
trained me well). I can be reached at: dleahy@lios.org
Be Well,
Dan Leahy
as you may or may not know, i am currently working towards my masters degree in counseling with an emphasis on play therapy and transpersonal/integral counseling. as both a therapist and an individual, i strive to co-create spaces that invite exploration of the life that is within us and around us. encouraging one another to be open and present, actively engaging in our lives, appears to be powerful medicine. i have found therapy to be a phenomenal resource for offering people an opportunity, environment and relationship through which to explore one's inner territory and make contact with emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
i moved to texas a year and a half ago because of the strong play therapy program that the university of north texas offers. 2 months after i arrived i volunteered at a conference at the university on near death experiences. at the conference i was in disbelief, here i was in an academic setting with a couple hundred (i'm bad with numbers, it looked like lots of people!) people (IN TEXAS) talking openly about near-death and other mystical experiences. i was moved at a core level, in amazement that there were academic and intellectual circles that had similar conversations to the ones i had with my friends in our living rooms. after the conference i was at p.m.h. atwater's website and i saw reference to UNT in a list of alternative universities offering excellent degree/certificate programs. it became clear to me why i had so emphatically decided that texas was where i HAD to go to graduate school.
Dr. Jan Holden, a counseling professor, president of IANDS, and a practicing counselor whose guiding theory is integral psychology, has been an incredibly valuable asset to my education and a wonderful professor to learn from and with. through her, the world of transpersonal and integral psychology and counseling opened up to me. it's been extremely confirming for me to learn this intellectual language that coincides with much of my experience of and intuition regarding some of the ways of humans and the universe!
my participation in the integral naked forum has connected me with many remarkable people. ryan is one of those people and at his blog, integral awakening, the idea came up to create a counseling/psychology blog. i am extremely passionate about the field of therapy and would love to be a part of a community that is working to propagate a holistic, integral perspective of what a therapist and therapy is. there are so many stereotypes about counselors and psychologists that simply are not true and there is a wide population of people who have been let down and disregarded in traditional therapeutic processes. we hope to use this blog to explore and focus on anything and everything that is related to counseling and psychology.
does this sound interesting to you? do you want to participate?
i agree with ryan , the master mind behind this idea, that "it would be a collective/joint effort that I think would be very exciting because I have yet to come across such an active resource - plus I know it would benefit my development as an individual and a counselor."
post a comment if you're moved to participate and i'll keep you all informed as this project comes to life.
comments:
delicious sharing
Ashley, Ryan what I fantastic idea!
I am definitely in and will do all I can to help you guys make the (integral?) counseling/ psychology blog a great resource and experience
It will be exciting to have an outlet to share with like-minded budding counselors.
My outlook, research, and modality is rooted in the prophetic words of Jung- "The counselors role is to objectively validate the subjective reality of the client"
From Quantum physics to post-modern thought, it is becoming more and more evident that reality is a fluid construct- we need an integrally informed, client centered dialog rooted in the moment where principles of mindfulness and awareness reveal layers of the self.
This enables a progressive development of the inner person towards greater freedom, self expression, and in particular toward a natural harmonious way of being in the cosmos.
Jeff | Email | Homepage | 06.15.04 - 4:01 pm | #
Evenin' Ashley,
We met briefly at the Practice of Peace conference last November through
Christy Lee-Engel of Bastyr University. I'm the President of LIOS
(Leadership Institute of Seattle) and Dean of the LIOS/Bastyr University
School of Applied Behavioral Science. We offer a degree track in Systems
Counseling so when Christy forwarded your message about the blog I
stopped by for a "visit". I'm familiar with list serves, but new to
blogs, so we'll see how this goes.
Your vision ("integral counseling") is as intriguing as it is ambitious.
It would be helpful to me to have a sense about what integral means to
you and how you see it being embodied in the counseling context. Is it
a systems approach with a Ken Wilber slant? Is it a mind/body/spirit
approach, something that incorporates current therapy modalities with
things like body work, 5 Element Chinese Model, mindfulness practices,
etc…? Or something altogether different?
Having been a family therapist for 20+ years before being called to my
current work I have an interest in what I think you are inviting. I also
have an intuition that it is a path that in some ways may be “dangerous”
for the profession, in that it has the potential of getting therapy out
of it’s “special” field of practice, it’s niche, it’s “ministry” if you
will, and into a more collaborative, integrative field, where it is but
one dimension of a much larger expression/exploration of what it means
to be alive and sustainable on this planet."
Your “invitation” conjures up questions like “What is the relationship
between therapist and physician; therapist and lawyer; therapist and
school system; therapist and employer (their own and their client’s)?
So I applaud your curiosity and have added some of my own. Hope this
helps. I’m not sure when I’ll return to this site, given the work on my
plate, but I’m pretty good about responding to emails (the web has
trained me well). I can be reached at: dleahy@lios.org
Be Well,
Dan Leahy
